This video shows a short running session with one of Leon Shulman's Drone fixed compression diesels. This is the ball-bearing model, produced from 1948.
A super old engine and a real "blast from the past"!

Progress is a bit slow on my building projects, so I thought I'd post this video showing a 1949 O&R 60 Special, running with an RC carburettor.
Perfect for a medium size Old Timer plane.
You'll see that the throttling is surprisingly good, especially considering that I'm not changing the timer setting.
It's a superb old engine, that's perfectly usable today... Have a look!

This is just a simple attempt to show the qualities of the little PAW 100 RC diesel. This engine is about 30 years old, and the current version is marketed as the "PAW 06 RC".
I think anyone not used to diesels will probably be surprised by the excellent idling that can be obtained with a small diesel. I don't think you could get that kind of idle with a small glow.
In other words, this engine makes a great upgrade for any plane that was designed for say a reed-valve 049, or just about any small old-timer or scale model.
Have a look... It's a great little engine!

This Electra first flew on March 25, 2013, and was shown in this blog at that time. It flew very well for around a year, I never had a single crash and the plane never flipped over on landing, always remaining on its wheels, even in rough grass...
BUT, I wasnít satisfied with the build quality (I never am ). The plane flew Thanks to Vic Smeedís design and to a superb PAW 19, but it was built using sub-standard materials. For example, the fuselage formers were made from old real estate agent's ę For Sale Ľ boards, which I kept when we moved house, and the covering was cheap, imitation ítex material that someone gave to me.... And the whole thing was very overweight

Anyway, the plane flew so well, that I decided to rebuild it properly, and show it on this blog. In fact, Iím building a completely new fuselage, using good materials and tissue covering, and Iím also recovering the flying surfaces traditionally, in nylon and dope.

The photos show the original Electra (mine, not Vicís!), in 2013, and the present situation. You can see the old fuselage, with the rear end hacked off, to recover the fin and the tailwheel assembly, and the new fuselage and flying surfaces, in their present state. Iíve grafted new trailing edges onto the fin and stab, to accept the new hinges. In the foreground, you can see the rudder and elevator standing on ę modelling pin tripods Ľ while the dope dries...

This is one of those planes that took a long time coming... I started the build in 1993. For various reasons, mostly domestic, I didn't finish it until 2008.
For the last 8 years it's been waiting to get flown and, finally, last week, I got round to it!
After all this time, I wanted a record of the first flight, so I shot this little video using a cheap key-ring camera velcro'd to my cap...
As you'll see, the plane is covered with tissue and dope, and it's powered by a beautiful old ED diesel (a 1952 ED Racer), that hadn't been run for years!
Please ignore the date/time display on the video... It's just that I don't know how to set the camera...

I've been teaching myself to fly serious RC over the last 4 years (starting at 73 y.o.!). Before that, I could only very nervously nudge old timers around the sky.
Anyway, progress has exceeded all expectations. After starting with a PZ Radian 4 years ago, and working through several excellent models (mostly HK but with a Wot 4 electric foamie as well).

So this is the current state of progress. This Wot 4 is easily the best ARF I've ever had. The photos were taken early yesterday morning, at our club field. So far, the plane has had around 20 flights and there's not a mark on it. The first flight was done using an Irvine 40, and all subsequent flights have been with an Irvine 53. Fantastic!

I hope this combination of good luck and being careful keeps the plane flying for a long time...
It's a super plane!

About six months ago, I acquired a superb 1937 Ohlsson Miniature. It obviously hadn't been touched for decades but, apart from needing a good clean, it was in just about perfect condition.
The running session got delayed by work commitments, etc. but I finally got a reasonable video (I hope!). Here it is.
Some of the subtitles are in French... This isn't a Google accident, we have quite a few French followers...

This video shows all the initial running of a brand new PAW, from opening the box right through to achieving first-flick starting and excellent running/throttling, etc.
And it really is a great engine.
If you think big diesels should be started using an electric starter, or whacked with a stick, have a look at this...
A reasonable shove starts this engine in less time than it takes to pick up a starter...

This doesn't have anything to do with RC, or even toy planes or engines, but it is a major part of my life...
I can't be the only person here who likes guitar music so, while I get my act together for a few engine running or plane flying videos, I thought I'd post this video of my daughter playing guitar...
Some of the RC forum gentlemen might like it...

Hopefully some people who have problems with diesels may see this video on youtube. I hate reading about guys using electric starters on diesels (especially if they think they know what theyíre doing !!!), or whacking engines with a stick... Oh dear!
Long-time diesel operators will probably get a smile out of it... Good!
The video is an attempt to show the complete process of resolving a difficult engine starting situation. This super old PAW is locked solid with congealed fuel residue, and the mid-winter temperature is only 1 or 2įC.
The engine is more than 25 years old, and hadnít been run for around 10 years, so I used it to shoot a video of ę sorting out an engine thatís completely gummed up Ľ, in unfavourable conditions.
It took around 3mn 30sec to get the engine running properly (mostly just to free it up enough to be able to flick it), which I thought was reasonable in mid winter, plus another minute or two to achieve first flick starting...
Finally, Iíve put French sub-titles on the actual engine running part, so youíll get a free language course as well!

The late Arne Hende's "replica" engines are well known, and their quality is far higher than we've been getting from Chinese and Russian sources in recent years.
In fact, many of them are "super engines"!
My own particular favorite is the 0.6cc Drone, which is a great performer.
Only 0.037 c.i. (in the usual "American" units), this tiny Drone turns a Cox TD 09 propeller very well indeed.
I intended to put it in a plane (a miniature Super Buccaneer), but I think the engine is too powerful for the kit that I have!
Have a look:

One of my early aeromodelling memories is that around 1952/3, a school friend was given one of these K Vultures. We tried all one afternoon to start it, without success. From memory, we had the engine very overcompressed and flooded, and we lost a lot of blood, either because it was so difficult to flick or because it backfired and bit our fingers...
It's so much easier now. In fact, this engine is quite easy to start. I think one of my other Vultures is probably more powerful, but I chose the last production model for the running session because it's the only one of my Vultures that I hadn't previously run. It's a nice engine, have a look:

This is a short running session with the smallest engine I possess.
You'll see that it's very easy to operate and a fully practical, usable engine. You can take it to the flying field and fly it, totally unlike most very small engines that are only really intended for collections and might run a little if you're very careful!
This K Hawk isn't much bigger than a Cox 010, but it turns a 6x3 propeller very well. It was made and on sale in 1948 and, for me, in terms of easy operation, nothing better exists at this size even today.
Here it is:

This is a very early Comp. Special, and is exactly the way it should be. ED made quite a few changes over the years, so many Comp. Specials will be a little different, but this is the first one...
Also, many (most) parts are interchangeable with the earlier Penny Slot and the side-port 2.49 models, so there are very many hybrid engines around that have been assembled from different donor engines...
The Comp. Special has always been one of my favorites. It was the engine that first made me realize, way back in the fifties, that many diesels should, and do, start with just one flick...
One slight negative comment... in the video, I'm running the engine a little too lean. After the video, I opened the fuel needle another half a turn, and the running was sweeter... OK, I learned the lesson... Videos should not be rushed. In future, I'll take more time to set up the engine...
Anyway, here it is:

The Oliver Mk II made a huge advance in the performance of 2.5 cc competition engines. The 2.5 cc class was, and still is, the premier international class for FF and CL competition, so when, in one go, it raised the existing accepted standard of around 0.25 bhp (or even a bit less), to over 0.3 bhp, it was literally in a class of its own...
It was the first 2.5 cc engine to exceed 0.3 bhp on test and was the engine that first established the Oliver as being ę superior Ľ, setting the pattern for almost 10 years of Oliver domination of the premier international class. A domination that, it has to be said, was based on pure engineering quality.
I think the Mk II aero version was only made from 1952 to early í54, so there arenít many around today, and those that exist are mainly sitting in glass showcases...
Anyway, among those who like interesting old engines, not many will have seen an Oliver Mk II running, and I never could resist an excuse to play with a super engine... so the video is here:

I removed this PAW 19 from the Vic Smeed "Electra" airframe, to give the plane a "winter service" after a lot of flying last year.
This video shows the little running session, before putting the engine back in the plane.
I don't need max. power for flying, so I prefer to run the engine a bit "rich".
More power, and maybe even better allround performance, could probably be obtained by a little twiddling of the fuel needle...
Anyway, here it is, a super engine for "no problem" flying of model planes:

I just felt like running this old (but maybe new) DC Wildcat Mk III.
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed, I've known wilder cats than this...
Many other late forties diesels are better runners.
Maybe it's just that the engine may still be "new", i.e. not run in.
It's been in my possession for more than 40 years.
Anyway, you can judge for yourself, it's here: